Hey all, bit of a FAL noob here, just some minor questions

Hey everyone. First let me explain my rifle. I have a Century...on no...yes a Century L1A1 FAL lol. I really wanted a DSA one but with money I had to settle for a Century...at least for now. Also a good buddy of mine has owned his Century R1 FAL for about 8-9 years and has had no problems with it at all, so I did feel confident if I got a good one it would be worth it...IMO at least.

Now I did have a slight problem with mine, nothing major as it did not affect the shooting of the rifle or any of the functions either. My issue was the buttstock is slightly bent or curved to the left...I contacted Century and the dealer I bought it from, both were very helpful and willing to exchange for a new one or fix the problem.

Since I had NO function issues and it shot accurate you can understand why I was VERY hesitant to exchange....my luck I would have gotten some unibrow, rusted, warped barrel LOL. Researching it further from what I understand at least, some of the actual builders just forced the buttstocks on causing the recoil buffer tube to get slightly bent...I'm not sure if the tubes were too long or the little insert in the stock the tube goes through was too tight a fit...that part I am not sure about.

I did take the stock off and the stock itself is in fact straight...maybe the tubes were already bent before installing...???? So they sent me a new recoil buffer tube, I still haven't replaced it because I am contemplating going with a DSA para stock instead...would this be a good option, I hear they are top notch quality ?? Also expensive as hell but they do seem solid.

Also since I have the L1 I do not have the folding charging handle....is it possible to install one ??

I don't know if anyone here is farmiliar with GunPartsGuy.com....he ALWAYS had what I thought were great deals on FAL parts and accessories ??? I wanted to get some stuff from him, including the folding charging handle to try and modify my L1 to accept it, along with a bunch of spare parts just to have ya know.

Does anyone know what happened to his website...it's been down for a couple months now, tried emailing him but no response at all...

If not does anyone know a good website where they have good deals on FAL parts, accessories and mags ?

GPG disappeared, even some on FALfiles don't know where he went, I'll have to check back and see if someone has chimed in with where he went... I'd much rather have a century frankenfal than a new DSA, more old milsurp parts in them. The DSA reciever might be leaps and bounds ahead of a century one, but the rest of the gun is a step back from the milsurp parts on the century guns.

You can put a folding charging handle on it. You can either cut the handle or the reciever to make it latch in the forward position, I'd cut the charging handle because it's the cheaper part, even if that isn't how it was done on the originals.

You can get a new lower for $50 or so if you look around. I looked at para stocks for a while, but eventually figured it wasn't worth the extra expense. $400 is a lot of ammo!
ETA:The recoil spring tubes can be very hard to get off, expect to wreck the old one getting it off of the lower.

GPG disappeared, even some on FALfiles don't know where he went, I'll have to check back and see if someone has chimed in with where he went... I'd much rather have a century frankenfal than a new DSA, more old milsurp parts in them. The DSA reciever might be leaps and bounds ahead of a century one, but the rest of the gun is a step back from the milsurp parts on the century guns.

You can put a folding charging handle on it. You can either cut the handle or the reciever to make it latch in the forward position, I'd cut the charging handle because it's the cheaper part, even if that isn't how it was done on the originals.

You can get a new lower for $50 or so if you look around. I looked at para stocks for a while, but eventually figured it wasn't worth the extra expense. $400 is a lot of ammo!
ETA:The recoil spring tubes can be very hard to get off, expect to wreck the old one getting it off of the lower.

Yea last I saw on GPG website he was doing some remodeling of the site...then...he just disappeared. Really sucks cause he had some awesome deals.

Do you know any other good websites to order FAL stuff from ?

Yea I would definitly cut the charging handle before the receiver.

I was starting to attempt to wrench the tube off...then realized it's gonna get demolished. Since the rifle still functions flawlessly I decided to leave it until I make a decision on wether or not to get the para lower.

I agree with you, $400 for the para lower is a lot of money...not sure it's all that great for the price, IMO. Hell for an extra $300 I can just get another FAL !! Which would be more worth it IMO. We'll see though.

I just figured that the rifle's a rifle. It ain't one of them fancy pants high zoot high speed low drag rifles, it's a battle rifle. You ain't gonna be able to fire it with the stock folded like you can with an AK or something. Besides, the folding stock puts the recoil springs in the topcover, so when you disassemble the rifle with the bolt back by accident the topcover comes flying off...

I'd stick with the solid stock, but I'd go to a metric pattern lower [I liek the pistol grip better] and swap the rear sights to keep the inch one.

Anyhow, is it still possible to install a folding charging handle since the inch style are the ones that have them ?

Also which sight is better for the FAL, I have the adjustable non-flip rear sight, common R1 I believe. Is there better aftermarket ones out there that are adjustable and flip ?

Also believe it or no the is NOT a FrankenFAL....both upper and lower are Metric...I know crazy considering it's a Century right, LOL.

Yes, the dimensions are the same on the charging handles, but once again, you'll have to cut a bit off of the inch handle to get it to latch forward. I kind of wish I hadn't cut mine, folding it out then using it is so much slower than just cupping your hand and unfolding it in the same motion as pulling it back, it doesn't even stick out very far when it is like that [semi-folding]...

You can go to the inch pattern rear sight that folds, but you'll need a very tall front sight post as the inch pattern sights are on a higher plane than the metric.

Huh, I just call frankenfals any mixed parts build [like ones with US compliance parts, but I guess I can't count the receiver on that unless it's something like a late hesse rec.], so pretty much any FAL now...
Sorta related, I tend to think of the perfect fal being an inch pattern upper on a metric lower, with the inch pattern rear sight and the israeli mag release. Quite the wierdo FAL.

Yes, the dimensions are the same on the charging handles, but once again, you'll have to cut a bit off of the inch handle to get it to latch forward. I kind of wish I hadn't cut mine, folding it out then using it is so much slower than just cupping your hand and unfolding it in the same motion as pulling it back, it doesn't even stick out very far when it is like that [semi-folding]...

You can go to the inch pattern rear sight that folds, but you'll need a very tall front sight post as the inch pattern sights are on a higher plane than the metric.

Huh, I just call frankenfals any mixed parts build [like ones with US compliance parts, but I guess I can't count the receiver on that unless it's something like a late hesse rec.], so pretty much any FAL now...
Sorta related, I tend to think of the perfect fal being an inch pattern upper on a metric lower, with the inch pattern rear sight and the israeli mag release. Quite the wierdo FAL.

Actually, the Inch pattern charging handles have a thicker slide then the metric pattern charging handles. Depending on who made the receiver and their tolerances you may need to sand down the thickness of the inch charging handle slide in order for it to fit properly.